Friday, April 29, 2011

Here's the thing. I'm one of those people who quite often find themselves considering what the hell I would do when the inevitable zombie apocalypse kicks off. When the Bear and I had finished emptying out bags from Tesco after a particularly big food shopping trip, I surveyed our well stocked shelves of canned goods and fridge and thought to myself "We are so sorted if there's a zombie outbreak in the next few days." I even considered how we could concoct some manner of zip line to cross the street below our top floor apartment, over to Spar in case we ran out of milk or Jaffa Cakes.

Every so often I have dreams about zombies and most recently I had the best one yet. In it, the Bear and myself were holed up in a flat above a shop overlooking a street riddled with shuffling zombies, but we were accompanied by none other than the Mythbusters. Who better to improvise ways of blowing the shit out of the undead than those people? (Except maybe MacGyver.) I'm going to need to get Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman on board with my zombie survival plan, quick smart.

Anyway, my hypothetical plans have gone into overdrive lately, as I recently tore my way through the tremendously brilliant World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks (a fantastic-as-usual Christmas present from the Bear). I never realised books could be scary, but there were quite a few parts of this one that freaked me the fuck out. It very nearly ended up in the freezer on more than one occasion. I also got scared while reading it on the train, as the realisation dawned on me that a train carraige is surely one of the worst possible places to be in a case of a zombie infestation.

Yesterday, the Bear struck zombie survival gold when he unearthed the most amazing and perfect zombie proof house and sent me the link to it. People, I give you "The Safe House", located in the outskirts of Warsaw and designed by KWK Promes, the marvellous bastards. Behold!

Big fuck-off wall to keep the damned at bay? Check.

Jaw-droppingly beautiful interior in which to comfortably ride out the plague of the undead? Check.

Exterior that can be sealed up to render it an impenetrable self-contained fortress of awesomeness? Check.

Oh, did I mention that it has a retractable walkway to the top floor? WELL IT DOES.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Oh my aching feet. Last night I, along with the Bear, T Cup, the Incredible Mulq and various others bedecked in fifties finery danced our sexy socks right off at the shoot for The Dead Flags and their ingenious Back To The Future themed video. The red and white dotty dress I wore to the Blog Awards was whipped out once again, this time with a ponytail and neck scarf to Class of '55 the bejaysus out of it.

Up until that point, I spent my long weekend pretty much offline, under the radar and armed to the teeth with scissors, glitter and paint as I was tasked with the aquatic style decoration of the venue. I found it most amusing that for someone who ticked the 'no religion' box on the census form, I spent a sizeable amount of Good Friday cutting different shapes of fish out of coloured paper. I think that between the Bear and myself, we cut out something in the region of two hundred fish, not including the bigger and be-glittered fish and seahorses that adorned the stage and pillars. It was ridiculous, but the upstairs of the Grand Social completely looked the part for the Enchantment Under The Sea dance, if I may say so myself. Here's a sneaky still from the shoot:

My banner has tidier lettering than the original, despite my initial intentions to match the movie version. When it came to painting them in though, my natural instinct to stay inside the lines took over entirely.

I'm extremely excited about seeing the final result for the video, the song itself is insanely catchy and has been rattling around my head for the last three days. Rest assured that as soon as it comes online I'll be shoving it in all of your lovely faces from every conceivable angle. In terms of the internet, anyway.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Continuing the theme of fantastic films from the eighties, I'm sure you'll all agree that Back To The Future is one of the greatest films of all time. If not, then I'm afraid things between us just aren't going to work out. Watching all three of them in one sitting is my idea of a day damn well spent. Only recently the first film was on TV, and I had switched to it just in time for the deadly Johnnie B. Goode scene at the Enchantment Under The Sea dance, which delighted me no end, as it's one of my favourite parts. In which case, you can imagine my excitement when The Dead Flags revealed that the video for their comeback single will be a recreation of THAT VERY SCENE. Get outta town!

So, to pull off this most epic of tasks, they require people all dressed up in 1950s style finery to twist and shout for an hour or two in The Grand Social next Tuesday, 26th of April. I for one am chomping at the bit to get myself into my polka dot dress and high school ponytail for it.

The occasion calls for circle skirts, pearls, bobby socks, layers of tulle, corsages and dainty neck scarves for the ladies, and blazers, skinny ties and quiffs for the boys.

They just weren't ready for it yet, the moody bastards. But their kids are going to love it.

So throw together an outfit not unlike the ones worn by the Hill Valley posse above and get yo' sexy ass over to The Grand Social next Tuesday. Details on Facebook here. Be there or be square.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Last night I experienced a most glorious nostalgia buzz. The kind of nostalgia buzz that only an eighties film from your nineties childhood can create. The eighties film in question being Disney's magnificent Flight of the Navigator. I think that, along with The Goonies and Batteries Not Included were mine and my brother's most watched videos as sticky little children.

We used to call it Night of the Flavigator, under the illusion that we were being hilariously witty in doing so.

The nostalgia was almost overwhelming (although at that stage the buzz was quite possibly fueled by prosecco as well as childhood memories), as I hadn't seen it since I was about nine years old. Imagine my surprise when it transpired that the cool older girl with purple in her hair that befriends David, our confused hero was actually Sarah Jessica Parker all this time. With one hell of a 1986 head on her.

Told you so.

Anyway, all of that is completely besides the point, as what really surprised me was that I had entirely forgotten about the Puckmaren and more importantly, HOW MUCH I WANT ONE. For those of you who also need their memories jogged, I am referring to the unbelieveably cute and weird looking little alien that David meets on board MAX, the spaceship.

I realise this post will make little to no sense for anyone who hasn't actually seen Flight of the Navigator and if that is indeed the case, then get the hell off my lawn until you have. There's a chilling rumour of a remake doing the rounds, which displeases me greatly. There's something so genuinely charming about these fantasy/sci-fi kid's movies from the eighties and nineties, in that you know there were actual sets and props and freaky-looking Jim Henson-y puppets involved, whereas nowadays everything is green screened and 3D'd to within an inch of its life. Leave well enough alone, Disney jerks. But get me a Puckmaren, dammit.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

A little while ago, the ever delightful EleventyFour asked me to design the artwork for her debut EP, The Joy Imperative. It was officially released yesterday, the 11/4/11 (Eleventy Four Eleventy, obviously) and I got tremendously excited when I saw it for sale on iTunes.

I mean the design, of course, as the wonderful whimsical tracks within are obviously the superb work of Eleventy herself.

It was my first time designing for a CD case and I had so much fun doing it. It's so deadly seeing it as a real actual thing on a shelf in a shop.

I scattered references to the words of the songs on the CD throughout the collage style design, as well as the five icons on the cover and disc which represent each track. The "Around the World" ticket (Route 114, get it? Eh?) refers to a line in Small Wonders, "Put me in your pocket and we'll sail all over the world", while the loveheart sweets come from The Friend Song, the lyrics of which include indoor friends, outdoor friends, let's meet up for cocktails friends and myriad other friends which pop up represented as sweets here and there on the inside and back of the packaging.

The Joy Imperative is a terrific collection of sweet, funny songs which has been reviewed most splendidly in haiku form no less, over on Swear I'm Not Paul. As well as iTunes, it's available on Amazon and Bandcamp, where you can order physical copies as well as download it. It's also available to buy in Freebird Records (Secret Book & Record Store) and Tower Records, both on Wicklow Street, Wingnut Records in Galway and Plugd Records in Cork and 10% of the profits go to DePaul Ireland, so support your independent record shops now, ya hear?

Sunday, April 10, 2011

As most of you are surely well aware by now, I'm a tad obsessed with old school pin up girl art. I've previously mentioned that I wrote a dissertation in college about the origins of the pin up girl, the coasters on our coffee table are tiles adorned with saucy thigh-flashing hotties and for my birthday last year the Bear knocked it out of the park with a Vargas girl double whammy of a vintage deck of cards and a 1972 collection of Playboy centrefolds. So when I spotted a link on Facebook, courtesy of Anne-Marie, that contained a gallery of pin up girls and the photos on which the artist based them, I got a bit excited. It's a mad kind of before and after, where the artist quite clearly selects bits and pieces of the models in the photos to put together a winking, impossibly streamlined and downright gorgeous Frankenstein cutie.

If you want to see more, and let's not kid ourselves, of course you do, the full gallery is here.